Can you believe this shit?

[ashauler]

ReV - You are wrong about this. It's not about having somebody's back. An email is, in fact, an official piece of company documentation when it comes from a company provided account. Individual employee emails have been called into evidence in many cases and stand up as official company documentation whether it is formal or informal email. A business email is not the appropriate place to make a personal statement. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that particular signature. What I am saying is that every company has a right to set standards for what goes into their official documentation. Besides that, ethically I feel that when you agree to work for a company you agree to abide by there practices, procedures and policies. If you disagree with them you have the right to try to change them or quit. But while they are in effect an employee is ethically bound to abide by them.

Besides, a manager would rather do just about anything other than spend their time handling these kind of issues. If a manager said something about an email signature, chances are he or she was directed to do so.

Edit: Yes, I was a technical manager for 13 years for a large Telecom company. I do speak from first hand knowledge and experience.

Absolutely, e-mail is legal documentation which is why most companies that use them regularly have retention policies and content restrictions. If you can believe it, my sig-line that I use here was deemed inappropriate as a "political" statement, so I don't use it any longer and stick with the stuffed shirt contact info. Free speech doesn't exist in the work environment.

[Monk]

I used to have stuff like that in my .sig but keep it only for home now. That's just the way the business world has gone sadly. It is a form of letterhead now. Many businesses use their gateway to add legal disclaimers etc. as well: here is what they add to mine:


-------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: This e-mail message is intended only for the named recipient(s) above and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and/or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you have received this message in error, or are not the named recipient(s), please immediately notify the sender and delete this e-mail message.

NOTE: Ce courriel est destiné exclusivement au(x) destinataire(s) mentionné(s) ci-dessus et peut contenir de l'information privilégiée, confidentielle et/ou dispensée de divulgation aux termes des lois applicables. Si vous avez reçu ce message par erreur, ou s'il ne vous est pas destiné, veuillez le mentionner immédiatement à l'expéditeur et effacer ce courriel.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

-W.